


No Other Place

by exmanhater



Category: Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: Background Het, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-22
Updated: 2013-08-22
Packaged: 2017-12-24 06:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/936704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exmanhater/pseuds/exmanhater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Letty should maybe feel jealous of Elena, but instead she just wants to know her better. Or, how Letty got her groove back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Other Place

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Female Fest](http://female-fest.dreamwidth.org) with the prompt _The Fast and the Furious, Letty + Elena, friend of the family,_ and originally posted [there](http://female-fest.dreamwidth.org/9292.html)

It took a while for Letty to put her finger on it – to explain the strange way she felt drawn to Elena. To someone who, most everyone else seemed to think, she should naturally view with suspicion and jealousy. After Letty and Dom settled into a kind of routine in LA (their old routine? She had no way to know other than Dom's memory), Elena kept her distance for a while. Dom and Hobbs kept up an overly masculine friendship, though, and Elena was a part of Hobbs' life, so she kept on being a part of Dom's, too. And Letty always wanted to know what Elena had said, or how she was doing now, but she couldn't ask without having to explain why she wanted to know. Everyone would assume she was worried about Dom being unfaithful, and until she figured out the real reason herself, she wasn't going to have a good answer for that.

Mia was trying her hardest to help Letty recover her life (along with everyone else). Letty was grateful, but seeing pictures and hearing stories only made her feel more detached from herself. Who was she, really? She couldn't build a whole life around other peoples' memories of her and the vague sense that she belonged with Dom and Mia and Brian – it made her feel empty, longing for the clarity of purpose she'd known with Shaw. But in truth, that had been just as empty and meaningless as she sometimes felt now. She was happier now. She still needed more.

The only times she felt truly settled in her own mind were when she worked on cars, or drove them. That felt real; tangibly _her_ without any doubt or question. The new doctors Brian talked her into seeing all told her the same thing – she might remember eventually, but there was no way to know for sure, and she might never recover everything. Letty had expected that answer, and she wasn't disappointed. She knew she'd have to fix this her own way – once she found out what her way meant.

Three months in, Dom threw their weekly barbeque and Letty specifically told him to invite Elena. She figured that couldn't be misinterpreted – she wanted Dom to know she was cool with his friendship, and his past, with Elena. Dom still gave her a concerned look.

"You sure?" he asked. 

Letty nodded. "Yeah. She's a friend of the family, right? I want to get to know her, and then maybe she'll feel better about spending time with us."

Dom's face relaxed and he ran a hand through her hair. This, Letty remembered – not his face, or even his hands, but how it felt to be touched like she was important. She trusted that feeling more than she trusted the pictures and histories other people showed her. She smacked his hand away in mock annoyance and smirked at him.

"You going somewhere with that?" she asked. "If not, knock it off."

"I'm always going somewhere with you," he replied, and that took them to the bedroom and curtailed any more conversation about why Letty wanted to know Elena.

At the barbeque, Elena seemed tense until Letty made a point of talking to her. They kept it light, but before Elena left, Letty pulled her aside.

"Hey," she began. "If you'd rather not be around me and Dom at the same time, that's cool. But I want you to know I like you, and I'm glad you were there for him when I couldn't be. I'd – I'd like us to be friends."

Elena searched her face, and seemed to find the truth behind Letty's words. "I never thought I'd be with Dom forever," she said, smiling. "He helped me, too, and I'm glad of it, but I'm not pining, or mad at you. I think I'd like to be your friend."

Letty smiled back. "We need more girls in this family," she said. "And I need all the friends I can get."

"It's a deal," Elena replied, and then, to Letty's surprise, gave her a quick hug. "That's what friends do," she told Letty teasingly, and then left.

Letty almost grasped it then, the elusive reason behind her need to know Elena. But then Mia dropped the baby in her lap, and she let her thoughts go. She'd find it, in time.

+++

Letty figured it out a month later – a month where she'd had no less than three different lunches alone with Elena, and another with Mia included. She knew Dom had been out with Hobbs and Elena as well, and no one seemed to think any of it was strange, thankfully.

Elena had loved Dom – maybe still loved him, even just as a friend. She knew him, knew he'd loved Letty, and she loved him, and she didn't have anyone telling her that she should or why she did or how she should feel about him now. Letty wanted to know _why_. She desperately wanted to believe that understanding Elena would bring her to a better understanding of herself. Her body remembered loving Dom, or at least, it remembered loving someone like Dom. Her mind felt safe with him, and she was building new memories for herself. Still – she felt that maybe Elena's memory was more trustworthy than Dom's, and certainly more so than hers.

Dom's memories of her would always be tinged by how much he loved her, as would Mia's and Brian's, and so she couldn't trust them. But Elena's knowledge of her was more removed – Elena had never known her from before – and maybe it could tell her something new.

She tried to bring it up subtly the next time she saw Elena, but she didn't hold out much hope for herself there – even without remembering her past, she knew subtle wasn't her thing.

"What did Dom say about me, when he thought I was dead?" she asked, just as Elena finished ordering a beer.

Elena didn't seem surprised or offended. "Lots of things," she replied. "But most of them were indirect."

Letty didn't quite get that, and her confusion must have shown.

"I don't think he ever said your name if he didn't have to," Elena continued. "But it was always obvious to me when he was thinking or speaking of you, because his pain was like mine."

"What did – what _do_ you think of me?" Letty said it quickly and stared right at Elena, trying to hide her anxiety.

Elena met her gaze and didn't flinch. "I think you are strong, and committed – you don't do anything halfway. But I think maybe you are also someone who doesn't really care what other people think of her, or at least you used to be that sort of person."

Letty snorted. "Yeah, join the choir. Every fucking time I try to get some of myself back from anyone else's memories, they tell me that. I even tell myself that. That's why I wanted to talk to you – I thought maybe you'd be more objective."

Elena shrugged. "I am only being honest."

"I know that," Letty said. "I know that, I just – "

"You're trying to create yourself again," Elena ventured, after the silence had started to become uncomfortable. 

Letty bit her lip and didn't reply.

"It's not so strange; we all do," Elena said. "I remember who I was five years ago, but I am still making who I am now, and she is a different person."

"But you do remember her – you remember who you used to be," Letty said without thinking. "I _can't_ – " 

"No," Elena replied. "That gives you much more freedom than the rest of us."

Letty scowled, could feel her face descending into anger.

"Not that that is easy," Elena said hurriedly. "Just, it is unique, and maybe that is something you can work to your advantage."

They both let that thought sit quietly with them for a moment. Letty almost felt the words physically as they resonated with her mind – she could choose. She didn't have to be her old self, and while she'd known that for a long time, she hadn't really believed it until now.

Elena touched her forearm, and Letty felt her mouth curve into a tiny smile. "Thanks," she told Elena.

"You're welcome," Elena replied, and then asked about Jack, and the conversation moved on.

Later, at home in the kitchen with Mia, Letty gave her a hug just for the hell of it, and Mia almost dropped a dish in shock. 

"Spontaneous physical affection?" Mia asked.

Letty shrugged. "I'm trying out new things."

Mia smiled widely, and Letty had a flash of seeing that smile before. She felt good about seeing it now, though, which was more important than remembering it from before.

"Good," Mia said. "It's making you happy, that I can tell."

+++

Letty stood up at the next barbeque to make her own little speech once Dom was done with his. Brian grinned at her and started clanging his fork against his plastic cup.

"Speech, speech!" he shouted, and everyone laughed.

"You trying to make us classy, Bri?" Dom asked.

"I'm trying to hear what Letty has to say," Brian replied. "Shut up, old man."

Dom let it pass and everyone's attention turned back to Letty. She gripped the back of her chair tightly with one hand and concentrated on Elena, sitting next to Hobbs across the table from Dom, and on Dom's hand, which was resting lightly on the small of her back.

"I won't get all weepy on you like Dom," she began, and wasn't surprised when Dom's fingers flicked her back. "I'm just glad I'm here, and I'm glad you all still want me as a friend and as your family. I've been worrying a lot about being the Letty you remember, but you've all told me loud and clear that you like the Letty I am right now."

"Hear, hear," Mia said, and Letty grinned at her.

"And I'm gonna be whoever I want to be from now on, whether I recover my old memories or not," Letty finished. "If you don't like how I turn out, too fucking bad for you."

Brian straight out guffawed, startling the baby on his lap so that Mia had to grab Jack to keep him from falling. Elena looked proud, and when Letty glanced down at Dom, he had a fond look on his face.

"What?" she asked.

"That's exactly what I'd expect you to say," he replied. "Classic Letty."

She almost expected to feel upset – like it meant her goal of creating a new Letty was being undermined – but instead she felt the last piece click into place in her mind. Of course it was classic Letty – she'd said it, and that made it hers.

"American muscle," she retorted, because that had been the worst line she'd ever heard and she wasn't going to let him forget it.

Dom just pulled her back down into her chair and put a warm arm around her shoulders. The conversation went back to the usual Sunday barbeque banter, punctuated by laughter. Letty watched, mostly, letting the feeling of belonging settle inside her mind.

But it wasn't just a feeling, this time – it was a fact. She was home. 

 

[the end.]


End file.
